Taro T

So, it should be a WWJC? (What would Jeff choose?) Might be able to get behind that.

Realize this is likely backwards because the Bills have beaten the Crows in the playoffs twice and haven't beaten the Chefs in the playoffs since Montana was in the league; but the Bills are built to matchup against KC and KC isn't what it was the past 7 or so years this year. The Ravens play a style that the Bills have to play their absolute A game to beat because they aren't particularly good at stopping heaving running teams. So, would rather see KC win this one and hope that somehow the Stillers manage to be the only team coming out of the North. Both the Bolts and the Donkeys could finish ahead of the Chefs in that division this year. Which could make this the magical year that both the Crows and the Chefs miss the playoffs. Totally get that Jackson has not been regular season Lamar in the playoffs to date and that they have a tendency to shoot themselves in the foot during big games; and also that until the Bills have beaten Mahomes Chefs in the playoffs they have not done so. BUT with all that said, would rather face the Chefs in Buffalo in January than the Crows in Buffalo in January. Go Walrus, coo-coo-a-chew. Then go back to losing the following week. 😉

Geertsen and Kozak doing double duty, along with Levi who we already knew was going to get the 3rd tonight. No Tuch. A little surprised at that. Wonder if he'll play when Detroit is in town or if they'll hold him out until the Pens or possibly even the Rags? EDIT: Missed Helenius doing double duty too filling in for Tuch.

If they make the playoffs this year; and it is a real possibility, AND that song ends up the B&G goal song you realize that he will be campaigning for it to stay the goal song (heck, if it ends up the goal song, he'll be campaigning for it to remain even if they're '75 Caps bad or anywhere inbetween) for as long as he's still gainfully employed at WGR, right? Like Thatcher famously said, "don't go all wobbly on us now, George." 😉

Did he really say that about that play? Does he not realize the Rams have been blowing big leads in nationally televised games (Fox's game of the week) going back to at least the days that Frank Reich was a Bill. There was a pretty great Monday Nighter back in the day. Not much miraculous in getting by them; more like a parlor trick than a miracle. 😉

Still expect "This Beat Goes On" by the Kings would've been a good choice. Not impressed with the choices they're down to. Would go w/ the Motley Crew tune if absolutely had to pick one of them. Expecting Jeremy White finally gets his way but am not thrilled about it.

Ruff implied last season that Samuelsson came into the year out of shape and explicitly said so this year. That he didn't strip a letter from him implies that he considers him in shape this year. His '23-'24 season ended in January, so yes, he was recovering from an injury once again. Agreed, that it will be interesting to see if he's back to his early NHL form with a full healthy off-season this year.

Plus the Bungles will be without Joe Rodent Home for about 3 months.

What's not to like in a 4-0 road win. Georgiev looked like the Georgiev that backed up in NY and played that 1st year in Colorado. Hopefully that keeps up. Thought Levi was a little nervous and overplaying the puck early but he got the stops and then settled down. Will be interesting to see how he builds on that in the 3rd of tomorrow's game. Didn't think much of Quinn's play the 1st 2 periods, but he was driving to the net in the 3rd which is something he used to do but stopped doing last year. He could be a big bounce back candidate if he can keep that up. Mrtka is definitely young, but the skill is there and he does have a bit of mean in him. Am liking that draft selection much more after the prospects tourney and tonight. Knew Kesselring was young, didn't realize how young he looks. But liked his game; he was solid in his own end and not afraid to hit people and he was quick to jump up into the rush. Power even threw a light hit or 2; maybe there's still hope. Liked the 2 Russian kids too. They still need more seasoning but they both look like they'll be NHLers, especially Novikov. Still despise the entries on the PP. Östlund got a couple of more really good chances and once again was unable to finish. Love that he gets really solid chances; hate that nothing ever seems to come of them. Do expect Helenius to be an NHLer in a year or 2. Both of the checking lines seemed to acquit themselves well or well enough at a minimum. The BJs crew was very impressed with the Sabres work along the boards. Personally was impressed with their work in front of both nets. It was significantly better than at least the past 2 seasons and likely much longer than that. Both Krebs and Kozak seemed to play pretty well in front of our net. Wasn't paying much attention to faceoffs (was bouncing back and forth between the Crows choking again in the 4th and the Sabres) but a graphic late in the 2nd had C-Bus winning about 2/3's of them. If that was accurate, there's something besides the PP entries they can improve on. Will be interesting to see how the Sabres top 2 lines fare against the BJs lower lines and how the battles for spots 5-8 on the D play out. Will also be interesting to see if the top PP unit can do anything. Not expecting much; but maybe adding Norris makes a difference.

Before the leg injuries, Quinn was like a young version of Reinhart regarding contact. He'd get knocked down a lot but wouldn't necessarily lose the puck and he was pretty good at forechecking to get it back (and then get knocked down again without losing it, and so on and so forth). But he was way easier to get away from the puck last season and he wasn't nearly as effective at getting it back. Will be interesting to see which version shows up this season and we get our 1st glimpse of it tonight.

Now if they could just help with getting the shot counter at the rink to be accurate, that'd be great. Expecting that's an issue to be resolved another day.

We have DTv and the streaming package is included with it. Have used it fairly often when away from home to watch games and haven't had any issues with it. There doesn't seem to be an ability to watch DVR'd stuff, but have never looked for that capability when using the DTv+. So, it might be there with the regular DTv when streaming and would be mildly surprised if it isn't available for the pure streaming service.

So, preseason squad 1 has all of the borderline F's (lines 3 - 5 and likely 6 but possibly 7 by ice time) and preseason squad 2 has all of the borderline D (pairings 3-5). Interesting. Also interesting that Rosen was the odd man out from the AHL scoring line with the other unit.

The only real change that they'd need to do to work that is bump Krebs off PP2 (PP3?) and put Wahlberg there. Follow up with either the Krebs line or the Kozak line and the Russians and no issues with lines getting juggled. And it's not like Krebs is going to get a legit look at the PP early in the season anyhow unless they have a lot of injuries.

Cool. Was trying to figure out why with UPL not available for however long, it was pretty much all of the bubble F's and G's but rather than going with the bubble D, they were going with 3 of the top 4 D and the 2 Russian Amerks plus Mrtka. But, wanting to run PP2 makes it make sense. Will be interesting to see how Mrtka handles himself going against a fair %age of NHLers. (Presuming C-bus's squad will be heavier on actual NHLers tonight than it will be tomorrow in Buf'lo.)

Yeah, he finally got to experience that playoff thing. Apparently it isn't for him.

That seems a bit unfair.

Personally expect Kesselring to acquit himself well once he finally gets acclimated to what Wilford is expecting from him. But, to play devil's advocate, Clifton by all accounts played well on the B's top pairing while McAvoy was out injured. And his stay here was, um, not good. He has the potenial to be just what this D needs. Let's hope that potenial gets reached.

Thought it was they've gone 25 games w/out losing the turnover battle. Not that they've won the last 25 times they didn't lose the turnover battle. Did autocucumber get you, or is that the actual stat?

Without Parent between the pipes, the Phlyers likely are still looking for their 1st SC victory and the Sabres go down as the 1st expansion era team to win a SC. The man was extremely proficient at getting his angle right. Interestingly & sadly, both primary starters in that '75 final had their careers significantly impacted by a puck to the eye. One of the 1st WHA guys to come back to the NHL. May he RIP.

The level of dispair stems from no significant improvements to the roster from one that ended up with 79 points and literally no changes to the coaching staff and only a couple of additions to the front office, both of whom report to Adams and 1 of which is getting his 1st taste of a role in management. Can't blame any of them. But believe there is room for hope that they're finally wrong after nearly a decade and a half of being right.

For Power, the thing that would most improve his game IMHO is getting beyond the need to hold the puck for 3 seconds waiting to find a particularly open teammate and instead just trust in his passing prowess and fit the puck into a window. It'll lead to more time in the offensive end and that combined with having a partner who seems to be pretty good in his own end should help alleviate a bit of his defensive zone issues. if he could also body against opposing forwards, not even hit them, just take away space; we'd likely like him a whole lot more than we have. Continue to build on his willingness to at least occassionally shoot the puck from outside the house which 1st arrived this last season along with all that and he might actually be a legt 3 and a poor man's 2 and all at the advanced age of 22 years old. HATE having Wilford back, because he seems to love having his guys take up space trying to disrupt passes without taking away time nor space. If you're tight on a guy, they aren't going to pass to him. Luring the pass while expecting to intercept it works for Dahlin, usually. Not so much for the rest of them. At some point you have to hope since Marty will never get canned he'll figure out that what Dahlin can do isn't necessarily what mortals can pull off.

Interesting.

Am not there yet; am actually more where the mindset was prior to Nolan's 1st year and Ruff's 1st year. Aka whole-lee-fack we're screwed. They seemingly didn't do anything to improve and teams around them on paper got better. But, in each of those years, things worked out pretty well. Can see a lot of reasons to be optimistic, but also several to be pessimistic. And on the pessimistic side, have zero faith in Wilford and Appert and little faith in UPL. BUT, last year even with all that still being the same, Ruff had them ready to go at the beginning of games. They have better defensive talent, if the talent can overcome the coaching, perhaps they can keep from giving up those early leads they should still be getting fairly regularly. Find a way to score some PP goals, even though Appert will do everything in his power to prevent it, and this could very well be a playoff team with middle of the pack or better goaltending. And they do have 4 lottery tickets. All of whom have flashed in at least partial seasons. And, as tix aren't selling, except for an out of town trip that will keep us away from 4 or so games, will likely be at a whole bunch of games, so ... LET'S GO BUF-FA-LO!!!!!!!

Fine. Apologies for entering this thread. 🍺